Join the new world

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English | Hrvatski (Croatian) | Ελληνικά (Greek) | Magyar (Hungarian) | Português (Portuguese)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. The Plato's Foundation writing contest
3. eRepublik Version1 (V1) & Rising (V2) survey
4. eRepublik demographics and player retention
5. Changes through the years: fixing what ain't broken
6. Where do we go from here?
7. Turning V1 into an RL educational platform
8. Who am I and how I dare?

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1. INTRODUCTION

This open letter is addressed to all the citizens of the New World (active and dead), Plato, everybody who has ever and still is working on this game, and to all the people who have ever invested money in eRepublik Labs, or plan to do so in the future. This article comes in a form of a research paper, although not that strictly. For years now, citizens have been complaining, primarily how the V3 eRepublik with the ongoing changes sucks, secondarily how they miss the V1, some even V2. I am one of them, but instead of just basing my judgment on the feeling of nostalgia, I decided to do a proper research, and propose a financially viable idea. Well, maybe not proper, but good enough for a failed browser game. I realized basing the judgment needed to be done on several levels, game modules, using various methods. Methods used are experiment, survey, data collection and analysis, observation, and referrencing other authors. Some of those are more objective or subjective, specific or general, but together, they all form the bigger picture, and lead to the same conclusion. I also want to emphasize my complete objectivity and coolness while writing this article: I liked V2 the best, but since most of the citizens liked V1 the most, here I advocate the V1's return.

Pretty much all of my articles in English published this summer led to this development. Air Stats and Rewards (farming), Change Status Quo (alliance imbalance), An RH Medal a Day Keeps Poverty Away (farming), Bringing back Citizen Ads and Reviving Journalism (negative impact of changes), To Gnilraps's "League of Allies Post-Op Debriefing" (negative impact of changes), eRepublik Needs a New Deal, Not New Updates (negative impact of changes), How Can Plato Earn More by Enliving the Economy (negative impact of changes), and The Dumbing Down of eRepublik Is Complete (negative impact of changes) were all small steps in trying to tackle eRepublik issues individually, and then it dawned on me: there is no individual issue. That is when I postulated my premise for the first time: no change ever, but a complete restart to V1, is going to revive eRepublik and bring it back to its former glory. When an article of yours (second to last mentioned) earns the Plato's endorsement, you know you are on to something. I got the idea with the last article. The Plato's Foundation writing contest was supposed to be a separated series of articles which I managed to incorporate into this research accidentally. And then I thought of the survey. After that, I googled for old citizens' articles on how eRepublik is dead or ruined, some of which referred to RL interviews with Alexis Bonte (for those of you who did not know, he is the CEO of the eRepublik Labs). So, I figured, I could google everything I could find about eRepublik, eRepublik Labs, Alexis Bonte and other individuals involved in eRepublik development. I can tell you, there is a lot of material out there. No, Maliopopoubross, I do not know what kind of porn Bonte likes. His wife is very supportive anyway, so probably needs not look for emotional comfort in ways you do.

I have to thank more than a thousand people who filled out the survey and shouted it for others. I believe they are the ones most anxious to read the results. I also want to thank Sergeant Spring for guiding me through the financial, hardware, and software requirements for developing, deploying, and running a browser game. Ironically, I have to apologise for not having the luxury of using anchor option in the table of contents, which was, go figure, available in V1.

To all the members of the eRepublik Labs team ever, who helped create and run eRepublik, I thank you, as well as hundreds of thousands of citizens, alive and dead, who made the experience unforgettable in both direct and indirect ways. Because, trust me, you do not have to know somebody to be impacted by their actions and inactions. But, I have to apologise to people who felt spammed with my survey, something that wouldn't have had happened if only, imagine, Plato had kept the Citizen Ads module.

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2. THE PLATO'S FOUNDATION WRITING CONTEST

First of all, I have to announce the winners of individual categories. I could have done it in a separate article, but I wanted to encourage those interested solely in the results of the contest to check out the entire article. Everything about the contest, including the idea, rules, prizes, and contesting articles can be found in [The Plato Foundation] Bringing Back the Fun to the Community, [The Plato's Foundation] Fat Gold Rewards Waiting For You, and [The Plato's Foundation] The Writing Contest Is On. Without further delay, I give you the winners:
Analysis: Weekstrom, Shawtyl0w, Kevin Sheridan
Comic: Rory Winterbourne II
Game Proposal: zzzingo, Waruda, GrinOne
Interview: n/a
Poem: Releasethe Krakken
Satire: Basharadam, Sir Edgard, Chris Matera
Story: nutty fox
Since, by the previously established rules, only 270 out 500 gold is to be awarded, I decided to award additional 10 gold to every of the 13 contestants. I will keep the 100 gold left as a compensation for wasting my time on the contest.

The entire contest was an utter failure. When first proposed, only 5 citizens expressed interest. Board Members of the Plato's Foundation pushed it forward and awarded 500 gold. I thought to myself that it was bound to fail, but I should go along since it could help prove my point. During the application period, the number of interested exceeded 30. A spark of genuine hope awoke. When the time came to submit their work, only 13 did it, most of them late. Conflicts emerged both in our group and individual messages because some of them were either lazy or unable to comprehend English description of the contest in the two articles. The idea was to link all their work into the last article, and shout it, so all our Friends (several thousand citizens) would be able to have acess to it, and yet most of them shouted their individual articles. Not one of them made any significant sucess. The fault is not entirely theirs, it rests upon the rest of you as well: you are uninterested in almost anything. Gnilraps's International Meme Wars suffered the exact same fate: when first presented as an idea, it received a widespread recognition, support, and the 500 gold from the Plato's Foundation. When it came to realization, a giant flop. Some categories had no submissions whatsoever, just like in this contest. 7 years ago, eRepublik was stuffed with quality content. Now, not even 500 gold rewards are good enough motivation for doing what was once considered nothing extraordinary. Just like so many have said it before me, I say it now: the Plato's Foundation simply came too late. There are no people left interested in that kind of thing. Gold is more easily won on various other ways, and majority of the real writers are long gone. I personally do not even think the Plato's Foundation is necessarily a good thing: it provides artificial financial motivation for citizens to do stuff they otherwise would have never done, and as a result, their work sucks big time. I have been told by one of the Board Members, TheJuliusCaesar, that 75% of all submitted ideas get the funding, not because they are all good, but because there are barely any ideas at all. And I am not talking solely about the News module. The entire Foundation serves as bandage to the mortal wound inflicted by driving away thousands of citizens which used to create ingame content, as well as independent tools, apps, and other web pages throughout the V1 and the V2. Therefore, it is a failure.

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3. EREPUBLIK VERSION1 (V1) & RISING (V2) SURVEY

Hypothetical scenario: the eRepublik Lab starts V1 Beta parallel to the current game. The game gets all the old players back (100 000 citizens). The Beta version finishes, and the real game begins from scratch, just like in 2008. Admins promise no changes are ever going to happen, but there is a cost: a symbolic fee (measured in mere cents) payed by citizens with SMS text to keep the game running.

Developing the survey was a first objetive means of proving people wanted V1/V2 back, and that the eRepublik Labs might actually earn money from it. The survey itself is far from perfect. A lot of citizens provided feedback on adding more questions, or more answers to choose from in the existing ones. It had to be kept short and simple, so large enough number of citizens would agree to take it. Another lot wanted to know who was funding me, and mostly misinterpreted the V1 mentioned in the survey as another game, independent from the eRepublik Labs, or as a game that would replace this one (and destroy their investments), although the survey clearly stated the two could run parallel, at least in the start. It is funny how (mostly paying) players expressed fear that even if this game continued and the V1 started parallel, many players would stop playing this after crossing to the V1. Because they would have nobody to show off in front of?

The biggest objection I received is that there was no option not to pay to play, but there was: qutting the survey. It clearly stated there would be a symbolic fee. Let me put it to you this way: there is no point in talking about bringing back V1/V2, unless Plato is going to make profit out of it. Otherwise, that would have had happened years ago. V1 had limited Gold Pack options. Theoretically, coupling that source of income with symbolic fees from increased number of citizens might financially prevail over a current, single source of income, which might prove unreliable at some point.

The survey was taken by 1041 citizens, out of 10.160 who have voted in the last CP elections. 10.3%, not bad! For the sake of the argument, and easier analysis, I will assume the answers represent the entire Community.



Clearly, most of the today's citizens here are old player going way back to the V1, some even to the Beta. The question was eliminatory: those who answered No finished the survey here.



71,2% of those who played V1 would like to play it again. 38,4% would like to play V2 Rising. Note that option Yes, both denotes either of the two versions, not a mix of them. They simply think both were better than the game today. This one was eliminatory as well for those who answered No. I answered Yes, both.



Free-to-play (red) won unsuprisingly. If it were to be implemented, everybody in V1 could work, train, fight, vote in V1. Those who would like to publish an article, open / upgrade a company, run for a political office (submit candidacy, not just win) would have to pay the fee via SMS text before closing the deal. Just imagine: only those sure in themselves and their abilities to do a certain job would do it. Those people enjoy those modules and would mostly pay to keep it free from spammers, cheaters, and incompetent businessmen.
Pay-to- play (blue) require each citizen to pay the fee via SMS text before the end of the month, or their citizen dies next month, and could only be reactivated by paying the fee by the end of a month previous to the one of revival. This option would discourage multiple accounts, since each account would require a uniqe cellphone number and a monthly fee.
What surprised me is that large portion of citizens would be ready to pay both the fees described above (orange). I guess some are ready to go the extra mile for a better game. This was my answer as well.



The amount refers to the fee, paid once a month, every time you do some of the actions mentioned above, or both. For the most of the Europe, the numbers offered should be acceptable. There is no surprise in the lowest amount (blue) winning. 50 cents has more support than the 20 cents option. The issuse here is probably psychological: it was the highest amount offered in cents. What surprises is that there are so many who would be ready to pay a whole euro. Sergeant Spring even said he would be ready to pay the monthly fee for one half of the Cyprus population, and his friend Mithrantir would pay for the other half. I guess there are people who would pay for other citizens to keep them playing. They have a nice RL income, and value the Community in eRepublik above all modules and medals. That is a nice contrast to today's payers, who drive citizens away.

Beta V1 should be free. When V1 starts for real, it should be free for all citizens for a month (their respective first months, not V1's). There is also a possibility of an offset program. You know, when a country buys military equipment from another country, the second country would invest that money back in the first country through industrial investments, to name one example. Something similar could be made in V1: those who would pay the fee for publishing articles would also get Citizen Ads for their articles in corresponding amount. The same could be applied to those creating companies: they could receive some gold in their companies' accounts (remember how there was a 40 gold requirement for creating Q1 companies: 20 for the company, and 20 as its production budget for salaries and raw materials).

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4. EREPUBLIK DEMOGRAPHICS AND PLAYER RETENTION

Initially, my goal here was to merely compare the number of voters in the latest CP elections and in the last V1 CP elections. Gradually, I discovered new bits of data, and decided to include voters in all the CP elections ever, number of active citizens you can see at Community - My Country - Society, number of active citizens mentioned by various media, total number of citizen accounts made by a certain point in time, Alexis Bonte's target number of active citizens by a certain point in time, and the size of the eRepublik Labs team. I took some of the data from other citizens' publications, and did the rest on my own. I also got the idea of mapping individual changes within the analyzed timeframe, and correlating citizen population with it, but reasoned it would be too much work for a single person, and actually beating the already dead horse. If you cannot reach a definitive conclusion with the data already presented, you never will.


I present to you a simple table. Unfortunately, turning this data into any kind of a graph proved rather unpleasing to the sight, since the timeframe processed and the numbers given are simply too large even for a screen sized image, let alone one the width of 675 pixels, as allowed in here. But, no worries, I will guide you through it. I added the three-digit punctuation, hopefully it will provide some help for the visual types.

Some of you might notice that game stages V1, V2, and V3 started a month later in the table than they actually did. That is because the new eRepublik versions were introduced in the second halves of months, meaning the first CP elections happened at the beginning of the next one. Citizens (in game) don't correspond to exact CP election days, only months. They were taken from screenshots of Beta homepage, V1 and V2 login page (contained Day of the New World and active citizens today), screenshots of Society page, various articles which used the data from the Society page, and YouTube videos which showed the necessary data. The eRepublik Labs described the number as that of citizens who login at least once in 2/3 days (in the first couple of years), later as those who are alive (meaning they login at least once in 30 days). They also claim the number to be filtered from multiple accounts. Once Alexis Bonte said 50% of citizens on the Society page play every day. Total number of citizens marks all the citizen accounts ever made (with filtered multiple accounts). Bonte's target number shows Bonte's hopes and ambitions of reaching a certain number of players by a certain point in time.


Table analysis:
1) Comparing CP voters and Citizens (in game), I saw a certain, constant ratio of roughly 20% of active citizens voting in the elections. There are variations, but the ratio is a general trend, and, in my book, the real number of citizens logging in every day.
2) When the number of active citizens dropped below 200.000, Bonte stopped feeding RL media with the number of active citizens, and instead has been giving them the number of total accounts ever made (which can only go up) ever since. Subtle detail.
3) Before the introduction of V2, eRepublik team trippled its staff every year. In best case, their number has been stagnant ever since.
4) Up until the V2, citizen retention was constant, and around 30% (visible from ratio between the total accounts ever made and the number of active citizens). After the V2, it keept falling. Today, game retention rate is at mere 0,7%.
5) Had they never introduced V2, and had the V1 kept going with its citizen retention rate, today there would be around 2.500.000 active citizens, of which 500.000 would play every day (possibly more, discussed in the next point). That is not merely an assumption: the V1 society was stable, citizen created and governed, and enlarged mainly by the citizens' RL efforts. The eRepublik Labs was focused on resolving bugs, answering tickets, writing the V2, and collecting RL funding. Their efforts in creating and enlarging the citizen base was miniscule compared to what citizens did back then.
6) V1 was tried out by million new citizens every year. That rate slowed down starting 2013. One of the reasons is active citizens stopped inviting new people en masse. Had they continued (in case of V1 continuing), by now 9.000.000 citizen accounts would have been made, 3.000.000 would be active citizens, and 600.000 would be playing daily. And that is a simplistic linear scenario which does not take into account the influence and involvement of those could-have-been citizens in inviting more people into the game, as well as the stopped service in that area of citizens who left the game with the V2.
7) Such scenario was not enough for Bonte. His ambition was 10.000.000 accounts made by February 2013, and, apparently, V2 was an attempt to gain higher citizen retention rate. At the current pace, that number will be achieved somewhere in 2020, with a statistically non-existent citizen retention rate.
😎 Related to the previous point: eRepublik became pay-to-win after V2 was scrapped. When there were hundreds of thousands of players in V1, a lot of people paid small sums (micropayments), which were limited. As the citizen population diminished, RL-money options became unlimited and every few months new packs and options were introduced. See Pareto principle.
9) Active citizens and CP voters numbers started falling even 2 months before the V2. They saw the V2 screenshots, read the eRepublik Insider news, tried the Rising in beta, and were not happy. Tens of thousands complained about V2 and threatened to leave the game, but Plato did not listen. That, and the Presidents' Rebellion of 2011 a few months later were the breaking point in the already fragile admin-citizen communication. Possible reasons why the eRepublik Labs refused to listen to citizens are greed for profit, and ego which did not allow them to admit the mistake, apologize, and bring back V1.
10) Not visible in this global table (but in one with individual countries): starting 2011, although the game somehow managed to keep it's active citizens number above 200.000, their geographical distribution was not as diverse. The number of countries with more than 1000 citizens fell from 25 to 16, and a first one-digit-CP-voters country appeare😛 the Czech Republic. The congested citizen population was kept mainly in the (often RL related) conflict stricken Balkan countries, for example the addition of the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in the late 2010. Later attempts to draw new citizens via RL infused virtual animosity advertising in RL media and forums have been described as insulting, hence the fall of the number of active citizens ever since.
11) V2 was introduced mid summer for most of the then citizens (northern hemisphere). They had a choice between enjoying sun, the see, nights out, sports, travels, and figuring out a completely new annoying game. Not a hard choice. Instead of doing it during the winter holidays, when most people stay indoors, watch movies and surf the net, so they would be bored enough to give V2 a try. The wigs performed a reverse winter attack on Russia and failed, just like Napoleon and Hitler. Bonte always liked to brag on reversing gaming entry strategy anyway.

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5. CHANGES THROUGH THE YEARS: FIXING WHAT AIN'T BROKEN

First of all, I have to dissapoint all of you who hoped game would change for the better with new owners, the Stillfront Group. A big nope. Alexis Bonte sold his company (though he got some Stillfront shares as well as money), the eRepublik Labs, but he is still its CEO and the same Labs team will be running the game for the years to come. The Stillfront Group cares for profit, but you can bet they will not interefere with Bonte's creativity and leadership when it comes to this game. They do not care for us. If the man who created the company does not care for 10 years straight, why do you think somebody else ever would?

Before introducing the V2, the Labs polled 14.000 citizens (out of 400.000) to see what Rising should look like. According to the wishes and ideas of those 14 thousand, the Labs sculpted the Rising and then tested it to see everyone's reaction. 100.000 citizens left the game. The Labs still pushed the Rising, and when they finally introduced it, they lost another 100.000 citizens. Where is the logic in that?


You simply cannot make a drastic change when you have hundreds of thousands of players. They play the game because they already like it, as it is. Rising was not a set of game changes. It was the Labs shutting down one game and bringing online another, transfering our account data in the process. Nobody likes transfers. Not when they ride a bus, and especially not when they play a game. The Labs based their game changes on the wishes of a loud minority.


George Lemnaru in November, 2010, in Interview With George The Admin. Too bad he did not think about his own words before moving forward with V2 and the ongoing changes that only complicated this game even further.

That is what Alexis Bonte said in March, 2016, in eRepublik where we really are... Almost two years later, they sell packs like crazy and the citizen population is at all time low. Believing him would be like believing some RL politician running for a presidential office.

Interested in more empty quotes from Alexis Bonte? Here they are, all from the same blog entry of his in November, 2008!
In [eV] When Community fails to the Community itself, Demonaire argues individual changes were brought online to fix certain problems. For example, he says voters club killed the News module, and, in response, admins rehashed the module to what we have today in order to kill the voters club. And the succede😛 they killed both the voters club and the News module. The problem is Demonaire offers no bigger picture. This is the actual truth: we had Citizen Ads - admins killed them - players organized the voters club - admins reworked the News module and killed both - admins tried to revive the module with journalist missions, which only brought spam up to glorious levels... I could go on like this with changes in all the modules. You have to see the big picture. And all the trails lead back to V1, that's when the game worked although it had bugs.



eRepublik was a text-based browser game, which is supposed to be a little bit better than an average mobile game. And I am not talking about graphical design and animations (which the Lab picked up for free from Nick Pettit). V1 was a product that worked, but Bonte simply could not help himself, and ventured on overengineering a simple game and raised the cost of development sky high. Just because some experts told him the game lacks 3D, looks too simple, and is just totally boring. Experts that never played this game. Experts that never brought new citizens. Experts that never paid him a cent. Experts that told him eRepublik concept was bound to fail. He listened to them, instead of 400.000 citizens that had played the game, brought new citizens, paid him money, and explicitly threatened to leave the game if it were to change, and did exactly that.


El Che G's shout refers mainly to the Days of Mayhem event. However, it is a sarcastic comment on eRepublik since V2 in general. This is a question for all of you, admins and citizens: do you honestly think Erepublik as it is is not scaring away potential citizens? If today were my first day here ever, I would have quit right after working for the first and only time. Flashy animations, range of colors, complicated formulas, Discord, ground/air/14 terrains battles... those do not attract players as RL experts, bloggers, and journalists claim. They drive them away! They are scary and overwhelming! V1 had no such problems.


If new citizens survive that scenario, unless they are intelectually limited, they will realize, they have no chance at all. It is tough enough to compete with all the players in D1, let alone with Maverick paratroopers. V1 had no such problems.


You seriously expect new (or even old) citizens to pay 400€ for a company, when tanks have dozens payed from farming Gold? I am beyond dumbfounded. And so is JustDoA, a 3 months old citizen, in his Open question to Erepublik Team.

eRepubliks is supposed to be masive social & strategy browser game. You killed off pretty much all the adjectives in that sentence and turned eRepublik into a cellphone war app. By the way, cellphone loading time is desperate, and V1 would be infinitely better at it. We are not gamers, we are students who log in to relax from studying in short breaks. We are parents who have no time to be gamers. You dont know your existing clients, let alone potential target ones. You fail at business 101. All RL media used to report how eRepublik requires only 15 minutes a day. Now? Remember Gnilraps's League of Allies Post-Op Debriefing? 2881 citizens played day and night, and that was only to win hundreds of Gold. Citizens are tired of refilling Energy and having to log in every few hours. This game has become a rat race. It has become a bad relationship, a constant attention seeker. Bonte in his latest blog entry discusses Labs mobile games and says the Labs failed at the maximum 3 minutes of undivided attention. Well, guess what, you did exactly the same with eRepublik. Earlier, in the same blog, when it comes to dealing with mistakes he feels bad for a short moment, analyze it, then do the necessary correction as fast as possible and move on to the next thing. A lie when it comes to eRepublik.

Let me make an analogy: eRepublik V1 was a browser game. Compared to cars, it was like a Romanian Dacia. Not luxurious, but still fun and great. And then you tried to overengineer the game and turn it into Seat, the Spanish VW. The thing is, you cannot raise the bar in browser games like that. You can raise the cost of design and price of playing, but that is a failure. Nobody wants a 20.000€ Dacia. Stick to Dacia as it is. To eRepublik as it was. I know you have, or at least had goals for eRepublik to become some sort of big thing. Actually, you said you wanted it to become on of the top 3 browser games. But goals are bound to change with the flow. You had a great thing going. Bring it back.

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6. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?


In order for any of the things I am about to say, imagine V1 is back. How does the eRepublik Labs finance it? Like you said in Migrating to a new cluster architecture, in October 2009 you managed to run the text-based V1 with 200.000 citizens on 384GB RAM and 120CPU Cores Nehalem Xeons. I do not know what do you use now, but you could certainly start V1 again. Think about it: no need to transfer citizen accounts, newspaper, companies, any kind of data. A clean slate, starting with a minimal amount of players. Also, I presume you have the V1 code saved. I know it will require possibly weeks long revision, and another Beta, but it is better than starting from scratch. Enough for the software from me, I can barely write Hello World! in C.

Consider citizen attraction and retention. You must have emails of all the accounts ever made. My survey should give you an idea how to make your own. Or just risk it, and leave it to us. We have personal acquaintances, emails, phone numbers and Facebook profiles from former players. We could get thousands back in a week if they heard V1 was back and starting from Day 1, with Labs promising never to make such drastic changes again, or interfere with our gaming again.

Now the part that interests you the most: revenue. One option has been proposed in the survey: a small, symbolic fee that would turn into big money once the number of players reaches a hundred thousand, which ought to happen really fast. I know, you said you would never go with a subscription model, but we already know you say a lot of stuff and then eat your own words. V1 had limited Gold Pack (once a week I believe, with biggest Gold Pack being 140 Gold) and Health Kit buying options (5 a day, each giving 10 wellness and costing 0.5 gold), temporary storage increase (6 months/10€), eRepublik Shop, and some external RL companies paying for adds in the game. Beta had 10/20 Gold Packs, 1 available every 7 days. There is still option Gold by SMS:


This relic from another time truly shows us how valuable Gold once used to be. The power behind 10 Gold in 2009 was greater than the power behind 1000 Gold today, and this is no poetic exaggeration. I believe, out of all Gold buying options, you should leave only the one in the image. Just like with my survey options, psychology is the key here. First, small amounts only will attract more Gold Pack buyers. Second, a limited possibility of buying only one Gold Pack every 7 days will also attract more players who would feel in control because of the limitations, and would otherwise run away in fear of spending too much. Limited Gold buying option is a great thing. Third, SMS instead of credit cards: easier to use and to attract younger citizens who have no credit cards. A 15-year-old might spend 5€ on the game weekly if it is by SMS and that kind of money actually means something. No teenager will charge hundreds of euros on a credit card. Smaller payments from a larger population are more reliable and resistant in the long run than larger payments from a smaller one. Bonte holding a BA Honours Degree in International Business & Languages ought to know all this without me telling him. Once the game becomes respectable again, with the rise of Amazon and similar companies, production and shipping of souvenir items will be cheaper, and the eRepublik Shop could come back to business. I cannot even discuss external advertising in the game. You probably cannot find any these days, because, who in their right mind would pay you to advertise stuff to your measly 10.000 citizens? One other thing: why did Asia stay such an untapped market? People, you really need to learn about that Chinese app which the government plans to introduce as to easier control its population. Basically, a V1 that is not a New World, but a Brave New World.

Prior to bringing back V1, one thing has to be kept in min😛 people liked the graphic design, the colors, the shapes, the font... All other games that copied eRepublik V1 had exactly the same options, but different design. Ther failure lies in a simple fact they were not eRepublik V1. Never underestimate the power of nostalgia.

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7. TURNING V1 INTO AN RL EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM

One of the things I wanted to briefly mention was eRepublik's contribution to citizens RLs. dr. Boza Chaos was just a teenager when he played the V1 (he left after V2). His eRepublik experience encouraged him to apply to Faculty of Political Science. He is successfully finishing his bachelor's degree, and plans on to continue with master's. He just attended the Young European Council in Brussels. Jelen od Potoka is a member of Croatian Parliament IRL and de facto leader of the opposition. Many of other eRepublik citizens actively serve in his RL political party. Actually, starting from 2008, it was well known in V1 that many professionals absolutely love to play it. I am considering applying for the Robert Schuman traineeship in the European Parliament. eRepublik is a pioneer in making a social game where the Community is the most important aspect. It is also one of the rare examples where citizens deal with so much metadata outside of the game itself! And in some cases, it trancsdended into RL as a personal background. Imagine making that background cultural! How? Read further and be patient.

Challenges of Business Simulation Games — A New Approach of Teaching Business is an actual 30-page scholar paper on using business simulation games in teaching university students (chapter on eRepublik V1 starts on page 10). It clearly describes advantages of V1 over other games:
Regarding the graphics, the game has no advanced or attractive graphical interface. It is created with merely few visual elements and is primarily text-based in nature, yet overall the game is nicely illustrated. The game also has a sleek interface, so it is very easy to find what you are looking for.
Author of the paper reflects only on using the game in teaching students of economics. The reality is, this game could teach students majoring in history, political sciences, journalism, jurisprudence, international relations, psychology, sociology, anthropology, management, linguistics (translating game interface)... Imagine if V1 were to restart successfully, the eRepublik Shop along with it. The Labs team and Bonte (with the help of its citizens who are students IRL) get in touch with various professors and department heads by sending them free T-shirts, mugs and pens with the game logo. Bonte kindly offers them V1 as a learning platform. We all know that students of aforementioned social sciences mostly have tough time getting experience to better understand theoretical concepts they learn at universities. I know, I was one of them. Now, imagine their freshman year: they enter classrooms and auditoriums for introduction and their very first lectures ever. And their professors say how they want them to play this game for an entire semester, and write a 10-page paper at the end for extra credit. The focus of the paper could be specific or general, depending on what their major is: economics students could write about the entire economy module, or just about the monetary market. Even high school students could use V1 as a learning platform. I as a teacher of history would definitely use V1 as a learning platform from age 13 onwards to present theoretical concepts with some (virtually) real stuff. V1 is virtual, but not artifical. Remember the difference. And I would most definitely recomend it to teachers of political science & economics (school subject in Croatian grammar high schools). This way, eRepublik could potentially retain hundreds of thousands, even millions of new citizens, and transcent into academic and cultural domain.

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8. WHO AM I AND HOW I DARE?

I'm not your paying customer, but I am still your client. As soon as I agreed on your Terms and Conditions and registered, that was us signing a contract. I may not pay you money, but I invest my time, effort, and talent into making the game better, which in turn, helps keep current players in the game, many of whom pay. And the effect accumulates with non-paying citizens like me creating content for the citizens who pay. You do not value me? Fine. I can find other games, just like you can get other citizens. Oh, wait, you cannot.
Back in 2009/10, I printed RL flyers on my own expense, cared for a hundred new citizens donating my own money and items, wrote tutorials for them... And I am just one of hundreds, maybe thousands of citizens that used to do that in V1. I am your average citizen that helps keep other 10 citizens, one of whom actually pays you. To avoid false humility, it is enough to say I am the top Croatian journalist, maybe even economist as well left in the game. All the famous Croatia military strategists and political leaders already left the game. Soon, I will leave, too. I am just waiting to see your move for the tenth anniversary. What happens with Croatia when I and the next 10 active expert citizens leave? What happens with all the other countries when they see the same happening to them? To all of you citizens out there: respect yourselves first. You can survive without the game, but the game cannot survive without you.


What do I know? I graduated high school with leaving exams (A Levels in the UK, ACT/SAT in the USA) in Croatian, Math, English, Physics, Geography, Informatics, History, and Political Science & Economics (even considered Psychology and Biology, but my counselor and all the professors thought I was crazy). I earned my MAs in History, in which I studied matters of politics, economy, geography, even philosophy, sociology and psychology (interdisciplinary work with those university departments and schools), and Linguistics (mainly English, but studied German and Croatian, too), for which I translated a lot, and I mean a lot of text on history, economy, engineering, psychology, even a by now failed browser game, but ended up teaching in high school because I love working with young people. Do you know how the process of translation and interpretation even goes? What I had to go through before the process even started? I had to master branch-related terminology, and more importantly understand it, the concepts and ideas it described, to be able to succesfully tutor BA students of Economics in English. Did two student exchanges: in the USA and Germany. I also took some elective courses at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology, like math, physics, programming 101, electro engineering 101, electronics 101... I took flying lessons Why? Because I am a renaissance man. Jack of all trades, master of none. Call it whatever you want.

Oh, I forgot to mention I worked in the game industry. It put me through university. My uncle and his family run a franchise of amusement arcades, and the company is so big it manufactures its own hardware and software. He started that company in 1997, way past the golden age of the arcade games. He invested the profit in making his own franchises of night clubs and restaurants, but the amusement arcades are still his trademark. He never said how that type of market is in decline, like Bonte said for the browser games. I started working there part-time (full-time summers) right after finishing high school, and was taught a lot about manufacturing, logistics, distribution, marketing, and running one of those venues. The software and hardware designs are ancient, only a little bit modernized. And that is because clients prefer it that way. Those games work on emotions, primarily nostalgia, even for today's teenagers. eRepublik should be like that.

I may not be an expert in a field, but that is only because I chose to see the bigger picture instead. I, or better, we, the citizens of the New World, are not some fool you consider us to be. True, we do not have access to all the information you have, but you have to admit that all the information available to us point to failure. Even if all what I have said until now seems like irrelevant and a libel, here is what everybody witha finished high school can see:
1) eRepublik has become pay-to-win;
2) the number of citizens is dropping, has been for 8 years, out of the game's 10 year existence;
3) Bonte's statements contradict his actions;
4) eRepublik rules and gameply are constantly changing, no stability.
Everybody knew that. I just provided numbers and quotes to prove it.



WTR